eisenstein montage

8/13/2019 Eisenstein Montage

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Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948)! Film Sense

! Nonindifferent Nature

! Montage

! The Method

! Regissura (Directing)! BFI Vol. 2

! Beyond the Stars


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The temple of Theory


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Constructivism:the artist as engineer

! The unity of Art and Science, Practice andTheory! To precisely calculate he design of the work of art

and its effects on the spectator.! No practice without theory.! No practice or theory of art separate from the

social command.


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Key concepts in Eisenstein s writings! The problem of film language:

! Attractions, or stimuli! Frame! Fragment! Conflict! Montage! Audiovisual counterpoint (vertical montage)! Organicity

! The social function of art and film s effects on thespectator:! Intellectual montage : transmitting filmic concepts to

the spectator.! Pathos and ecstasy : the emotional force of montage.


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Montage of attractions! Unit of measure for calculating the artwork s influence on the

spectator.

! Unit of theatrical structure organized on principles of shock.

! An aggressively anti-illusionist aesthetic strategy.


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Beyond the Shot ! The shot as fragment or montage cell.

! P = linkage; E = conflict .

! Mise-en-cadre! The heiroglyph! Vertical montage


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Mise-en-cadre! The image-fragment as a complex network of stimuli

! Composition within the frame! Lines! Planes! Volumes! Lighting! Tempo of actions

! Photographic parameters! Scale! Angle! Perspective (lens)

! Film speed (fast or slow motion)


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Mise-en-cadre


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Mise-en-cadre! Conflict as a multidimensional principle of

montage organization.! Within the frame;! In orientation of camera to filmed object;! Between fragments;! Across a series of fragments.


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The heiroglyph! As a sign, the film fragment functions like a

heiroglyph.! A complex of depictables. ! From iconic to symbolic expresson.! Depictables in conflict cause an idea to arise

dialectically in the mind of the spectator.


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The heiroglyph


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Dominant and overtonal

montagein October

! The dominant or obvious meaning.

! The overtones : connotational and ironicmeanings expressed through compositionalelements! Angle of camera placement opposes dynamic lines

of composition.! Angle of camera placement opposes Kerensky s

movement in the frame.! Changes in perspective reduce Kerensky s

movement through the frame.


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Eisenstein stheory of spectatorship! To direct forcefully the emotions and thought processes of

the spectator as a series of shocks. !

Pavlov s reflexology : stimulus and response.! Marxist dialectic : out of conflict comes a higher unity, a

synthetic idea in the mind of the spectator.

! Montage as a bridge between! Laws of aesthetic form;! Laws of mind.

! Dialectics:! From conflict or collision to a higher unity . ! The dialectic as a leap from quantity (aesthetic form) to quality

(transformation of consciousness in the spectator).


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Vertical montage1. Metric montage

a) Physiological: photograms resolving into apparent motion

b) Shot length and pacing

2. Rhythmic montagea) Artificially produced movement (logical and alogical)b) Conflict between frames and syncopation of movement

within the frame

3. Tonal montage (patterning of stimuli on dominant)

4. Associational or overtonal montage

5. Intellectual montage


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Vertical montageMETRIC photograms apparent motion

pacing

----------------------- ------------------ ----------------------------------------------------RHYTHMIC stimuli

depictablesattractionsframe

artificial movement (logical) (alogical)syncopation

----------------------- ------------------ ----------------------------------------------------TONAL image organization of dominant----------------------- ------------------ ----------------------------------------------------OVERTONAL fragment emotional dynamization through

chains of psychological associations----------------------- ------------------ ----------------------------------------------------INTELLECTUAL hieroglyph conceptual; logical deduction


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Overtonal montage


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Intellectual montage

eisenstein montage

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